CATHLINE AND ANOTHER v. AKUFO-ADDO
1990
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
- AMPIAH
- LAMPTEY
- ADJABENG JJ.A
Areas of Law
- Civil Procedure
- Equity and Trusts
- Evidence Law
1990
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The case involves a dispute over the estate of Oheneba Ofori Panin Ofori Atta (O.P.), who died in 1982. Mrs. Adeline Akufo-Addo claimed that O.P. held shares in Beyeeman Freezing Co. Ltd. and a house in trust for her late husband’s estate. The trial court initially ruled in her favor, but the defendants appealed. Major issues on appeal included procedural errors in amending the writ of summons and the validity of claims that O.P. sold A.A.'s trucks and invested the proceeds. The appellate court found that the trial court acted without jurisdiction in some procedural matters and failed to adequately scrutinize the plaintiff's evidence concerning the trucks. Consequently, the appellate court set aside the original judgment concerning the shares and the house, citing errors in law and unsupported findings of fact, and dismissed Mrs. Adeline Akufo-Addo's claim.
JUDGMENT OF LAMPTEY J.A.
In April 1982, Oheneba Ofori Panin Ofori Atta, hereinafter briefly referred to as (O. P.), died in a motor car accident. The Rev A. C. Kwansah, B. D. in a tribute to the late O. P., among other attributes, wrote as follows:
"The philosophy, basic motivations and principles that influenced and directed the life of O. P. are recorded in the second epistle of St. Paul to Timothy, Chapter 2, verse 15. It reads ‘Work hard so that God can say to you; Well done. Be a good workman, one who does not need to be ashamed when God examines his work.' He did his best to uphold in all sincerity and plenitude, the dignity of labour, and maintained a high degree of business acumen, principles of truth, discipline and administrative proficiency."
Fourteen other persons paid O. P. fitting tributes. William Ofori Atta, popularly known and called Paa Willie, the first defendant witness, stated of O. P. in a tribute he wrote as follows: "He acted in such a way as to show that he was a real brother to his brothers and sisters and a good Samaritan to all his other neighbours." One of the sisters of the whole blood of O. P. is Mrs Adeline Akufo-Addo. Some six months after the death of O. P., Mrs. Adeline Akufo-Addo, as the plaintiff, issued out a writ of summons against the two executors named in the last will and testament of O. P., namely Andrew Cathline and Edward Patrick Larbi Gyampoh as defendants and claimed against the estate of O. P. the following reliefs:
"(1) A declaration that the shares held by the late Ofori Panin Ofori Atta (decd.) in Beyeeman Freezing Co. Ltd. were held by him upon trust for the late husband of the plaintiff or for the said husband's estate.
(2) Further or other relief as in the circumstances may be just."
The two defendants not only resisted the claim put forward by the plaintiff, but also counterclaimed for specific reliefs against the plaintiff. After a protracted trial, judgment was entered for the plaintiff against the defendants jointly and severally. The counterclaim of the two defendants was dismissed. The learned trial judge made the following consequential declarations in favour of the plaintiff:
(a) the registration of the name of Adeline Akufo-Addo as the holder of the legal title of 1,950 shares in Beyeeman Freezing Co. Ltd. (B.F.C.L.); and
(b) a declaration that Adeline Akufo-Addo is the absolute [p.295] owner of house No.1203, Kaneshie Housing Estate, Accra."
The defendants were aggrieved by the jud